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about haying-time, in the fields in his shirt-sleeves, like the commonest laborer; and in his social intercourse with men he pays little regard to the conventionalities of so-called polite society. He is "free, fresh, savage,” as Walt. Whitman says, and thinks just as much of you, in shabby attire, as if you were faultlessly clad in shining broadcloth.

As a stump speaker he has few equals. It is on the stump that his peculiar powers are seen to the best advantage. He abounds in felicitous anecdotes, which, if sometimes coarse, are none the less good; and his quickness at repartee is remarkable, and sometimes overwhelming. One of his sharp things in this line, we remember, occurred in a speech which he delivered in Faneuil Hall, Boston, during a gubernatorial campaign. He had just concluded a terrific denunciation of the administration, and the Democratic party generally, and, just as the applause subsided, a solitary hiss was heard. He paused, and looking, with all the lurking comic-devil in his eyes, at the spot from which this serpentlike noise had proceeded, he said, with that nasal twang of which he is master: "Is that a hiss I hear?" The manner in which this was said, and which it is impossible to describe, convulsed the audience with laughter, and then, gathering himself up, he gave the unfortunate hisser a final and annihilating shot, thus: "It is said that the hiss of a goose once saved Rome, but it wont save modern Democracy." It is needless to say that this last sally was received with renewed merriment.

This is only a mere glance at his style when on the rostrum or the stump, as it is called, in the West. His speeches are full of the sharpest hits, and the most convincing logic. We have thus briefly described the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, exGovernor, and present representative of Maine in the United States Senate.

This is the man on whom the people of Maine have lavished every honor within their gift as a State, and it is no more than just to say, that he has sustained himself in every position in which he has been placed with rare ability, and done great credit to himself, and his native State. It is needless to add that he is to be the next Vice-President of the United States, and as presiding officer of the first legislative body in the world, he will amply sustain the dignity of the position, and reflect great honor on the gallant body of northern freemen he so ably represents.

LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES

OF

HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN..

CHAPTER I.

Date of Birth Profession Political Faith - Entrance to Public LifeElection to State Legislature, etc.

THE career of HANNIBAL HAMLIN, Representative in the U. S. Senate from the State of Maine, and the candidate of the Republican party for Vice-President, is so intimately associated from his long public services with the political history of the country, from 1840 down, that to tell the leading facts would involve the necessity of using more space than our little volume contains. We must therefore content ourselves with briefly and succinctly noting the leading points.

Senator Hamlin was born August 27, 1809, in Paris, Oxford County, Maine. He is consequently about six months younger than Mr. Lincoln, his associate on the Republican ticket. He resides in Hampden, Penobscot County.

Mr. Hamlin's father was a thriving and leading physician, and gave his sons an excellent education. The subject of this sketch passed honorably through his early educational career, and, with the necessary preliminary study, was admitted to the bar soon after reaching his majority.

He entered soon into active political life, identifying himself with the vigorous Democratic party of that period; not then as

now, the abject instrument of the designs of the Southern oligarchy. He was but twenty-six years of age when first returned by his party to the State legislature. He served in that body for the next four years; during three of which, he was the Speaker of its House of Representatives.

In 1843, he was elected a Representative to the Twentyeighth Congress. He served during both sessions, and was reelected to the Twenty-ninth Congress.

While sitting in the national House of Representatives, the absorbing subject of public interest was the question of annexing Texas. Mr. Hamlin early identified himself by his votes, speeches, and other public action, with the Freesoil element of his party, on the resolutions of Mr. Brown, of Tenn., (providing for the annexation, with a provision at the States to be formed therefrom might come into the Union with or without slavery,) which was amended by Mr. Douglas, of Ill., to the effect that the provisions of the Missouri Compromise should be extended to the Texas territory; and in all States formed out of it north of 36° 30', slavery should be prohibited; when the vote came up on its final passage, Mr. Hamlin, with the northern Freesoil members of both great parties voted against both the original resolution and amendment. With most of his party, he voted for receiving Texas, when that republic accepted the proposal of annexation; and again affirmatively his vote was recorded for the final admission of the "Lone Star" State.

In the Twenty-ninth Congress, Mr. Hamlin's vote as strongly indicates his anti-slavery proclivities, though party ties still had their effect upon his action. His vote will be found recorded against Mr. Boyd's, of Ky., resolution declaring war against Mexico. His action throughout this Congress was of the same stamp.

CHAPTER II.

Return Home-State Legislature Election to the United States Senate Ad. mission of Oregon Compromise of 1850 Mr. Hamlin's votes - The Nebraska Bill-Abandonment of the Democratic Party -Election as Governor Return to the Senate, &c.

ON the adjournment of Congress in 1847, he returned to Maine and was elected a member of the House of Representa tives of the State legislature. He served in this body during that term, and was elected by it to the United States Senate for a period of four years, May 26, 1848, to fill a vacancy caused by the decease of John Fairfield.

He took his seat in that body, and in consequence was a member and participant in the contest for the organization of Oregon, and the celebrated compromise struggle of 1850, caused by the proposition to admit California. Mr. Hamlin's vote stands recorded in favor of Northern principles.

He voted for the bill organizing the Territory of Oregon, containing the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery therein and steadily opposed Mr. Douglas's amendment to extend the line of 36° 30' to the Pacific.

:

During the continuance of the compromise struggle of 1850, Mr. Hamlin voted against Clay's omnibus bill, and most of its provisions. He voted for the admission of California with her constitution excluding slavery; against the organization of the territories of New Mexico and Utah, without slavery-excluding provisions; and for the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. His vote is not recorded upon the final passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill.

On the 25th of July, 1851, Mr. Hamlin was re-elected to

the United States Senate for the term of six years. He still continued to act with the Democratic party, having advocated the election of President Pierce, and supported his administration up to the period that, under the lead of Senator Douglas, that party abrogated the Missouri Compromise by the passage of the Nebraska Bill in 1854.

Senator Hamlin's celebrated speech in the summer of '56, in which he abandoned his old party associates, they having abandoned their principles, will be remembered for the enthusiasm it excited throughout the North. It was the first gun of the Fremont campaign. In his own State Senator Hamlin instantly became the popular idol. Subsequent events mark how the people repay those who are true to them, and to the impulses of freedom.

Mr. Hamlin was the nominee of the Republican party of Maine, for the governorship, during the canvass of 1856. His name created the greatest enthusiasm; and Maine, the first of the States to lead off, in recording her opposition to Democratic treachery at Washington and Federal tyranny on the prairies of Kansas, rolled up a majority of 18,000 for the man of her choice.

He was inaugurated Governor of Maine, January 7, 1857, resigned his seat in the United States Senate on the same day; on the sixteenth of the same month he was reëlected to the United States Senate for another term of six years, and on February 20, resigned the governorship and took his seat in the national capitol. The annals of politics do not show another instance of such honors showered so thickly upon a s atesman as in the case of Senator Hamlin.

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